TY - GEN
T1 - Impact of XBRL on financial statement structural comparability
AU - Yang, Steve
AU - Liu, Fang Chun
AU - Zhu, Xiaodi
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - The quality of corporate financial reporting has long been the interests of financial reporting users, such as investors, financial analysts, and regulators. Comparability is a key qualitative characteristic of accounting information that facilitates the comparison of financial statements. However, various reporting formats and accounting taxonomy standards result in inconsistent reporting structures that indirectly affect comparability. To improve information comparability, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mandates the adoption of the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), a search-facilitating technology, to reduce the costs of information search and improve the efficiency of information processing. Leveraging on the XBRL adoption enforced by the SEC, this study investigates whether the comparability of financial statement structure has improved in the post-mandate XBRL period. The results show a significant, consistent comparability improvement in the post XBRL adoption period, providing empirical evidence of the positive impact of XBRL on enhancing financial statement structural comparability.
AB - The quality of corporate financial reporting has long been the interests of financial reporting users, such as investors, financial analysts, and regulators. Comparability is a key qualitative characteristic of accounting information that facilitates the comparison of financial statements. However, various reporting formats and accounting taxonomy standards result in inconsistent reporting structures that indirectly affect comparability. To improve information comparability, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mandates the adoption of the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), a search-facilitating technology, to reduce the costs of information search and improve the efficiency of information processing. Leveraging on the XBRL adoption enforced by the SEC, this study investigates whether the comparability of financial statement structure has improved in the post-mandate XBRL period. The results show a significant, consistent comparability improvement in the post XBRL adoption period, providing empirical evidence of the positive impact of XBRL on enhancing financial statement structural comparability.
KW - Comparability
KW - Financial reporting quality
KW - Financial statement structure
KW - XBRL
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85019399743&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85019399743&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85019399743
T3 - 2016 International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2016
BT - 2016 International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2016
T2 - 2016 International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2016
Y2 - 11 December 2016 through 14 December 2016
ER -